The Power of Video Production for Businesses: Enhancing Communication and Engagement
Are you about to embark on video marketing for your business or organisation? Allow us to lend a hand with some pointers to get the best out of your marketing video:
1- Start with the audience in mind.
You have your business objectives and marcomms targets to reach for the video. To get any way near where you would have the viewing figures be, start with the audience in mind. What do they want to see? Why would they want to watch your video marketing ? Stylistically and tonally, what are they expecting from your brand and for their demographic? If you are an engineering company, it doesn’t mean the video has to be dry and technical. You can still present those but in a pace and style that will reach the audience it needs to. An example is this VR video from Rolls Royce:
2- A solid brief for a production company.
Assuming you have decided video is the way to go, work out the how many videos and cuts first e.g. 2 for social media, 1 longer form for our corporate website and a shorter one for the homepage. Then start on the brief for a production company. Start with the message, audience and work backwards. What is the rough content? What needs to be covered? What might the running order be and who would be involved in terms of interviews or voice overs? A page of A4 as a briefing document, ideally with timescales and budgets would be held in high esteem from any production company. The more information the better. Too often we get an email along the lines of ” We want a 1 minute video made. How much is it? “. A document which includes examples and as much information as possible would help the production company and yourselves in defining the expectations.
3- Choose the right company.
Don’t look at the showreel. It’s a heavily edited marketing video. Ours included. It’s like reading the headlines and ignoring the style of the prose and the content. Ask for the last 2-3 examples of similar projects and if possible, get the details of the clients and ask them how well the production company did the job. Ask the production company about re-edits and changes at rough cut stage. By the time management get involved you may be looking at multiple changes to the original scope which should come at a cost as it extends the time spent on the project.
4- Test it.
Once you are at rough cut, get some feedback from your key clients. Does it give them the info they want from a video? Ask them to be honest in there appraisal. A fresh pair of eyes, especially client side, would help no end.
5- Back it up.
Just launching a video and expecting people to somehow find it on the website or on Youtube is not a good strategy. Back up the entire campaign early on with social media and PR releases saying that a video is being made. Get social with behind the scenes stills and footage and a few teasers to get users anticipating the release.
Related posts
